Customer Service Call Flow Training
Improving call center performance one call at a time.
This E-learning course was developed for a home security company aiming to enhance its customer service at the call center. The company had recently implemented a new system for grading customer service calls to ensure quality assurance. The representatives were required to adhere to this new grading system to meet the company’s performance goals.
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The L&D department assigned me the task of creating an E-learning course to introduce the new QA grading guidelines, which are essential for achieving optimal results. Named Assess, Care, and Think (ACT), these guidelines encompass key principles of behavior and best practices. I designed the course using Rise 360, incorporating an embedded Storyline module to effectively present the ACT grading system and facilitate its adoption among representatives.
Introduction
The primary learning took place through a Rise course, organized into four sections. The embedded Storyline module functions as an interactive application and study guide for the ACT guidelines. It allows learners to practice and prepare for the formative assessment, which they must pass with a minimum comprehension rate of 80% in order to proceeed to subsequent sections in the Rise course.
Course Framework
Analysis
Solution
Learning Problem
Objectives
To address this gap, I will design and develop Elearning, with the scope covering ACT in practice and using it to conduct a better customer experience.
Quality Assurance is struggling to ensure that customer representatives consistently adhere to the ACT Scorecard—a set of behavioral and problem-solving standards for on-call interactions—due to insufficient training beyond brief mentions during orientation. This training gap led to performance issues, adversely affecting both the customer experience and the success of the representatives.
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Describe what an ACT scorecard is to a colleague.
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List the components that make up the ACT Scorecard.
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Perform the actions required to find and review your ACT Scorecard card using company software.
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Collaborate with leadership to evaluate and create action plans toward improving performance by using your ACT Scorecard.
Design
After consulting with SMEs, we concluded that the design of the ACT Storyline should serve two key purposes. First, it should offer an interactive alternative to traditional reading, making learning ACT more engaging. Second, it should incorporate open navigation, allowing employees the flexibility to quickly review content without repeating the entire training. To enhance accessibility and reduce cognitive load, the course should be segmented by company roles, ensuring employees only access content relevant to their position.
Development
The storyboard for the course was designed with simplicity in mind to minimize extraneous cognitive load. It follows familiar eLearning mental models, featuring a home screen, a chapter slide, and bottom navigation. However, to prevent employees from different departments from spending time on ACT call flows irrelevant to their roles, I created a home screen with an intuitive diagonal split design, allowing employees to select their position at the start of the course.
Implementation and Evaluation
After the course was released on the company LMS, employees were given one week to complete it. While we didn't conduct a formal evaluation on retention and application, team leaders reported that the training was beneficial, noting an increase in employees meeting their Scorecard targets following the training.
Work Aid
Supplemental Material
As the instructional designer, I recognized that not all employees would revisit the eLearning course to review ACT. To support them on the job, I created a job aid that will be readily accessible. This aid allows employees to quickly reference or use it as a guide to follow QA standards and achieve a positive outcome on their ACT score.
Design of the Work Aid Pamphlet
Frontside
The front, or reference side, displays a list of all the ACT criteria, allowing employees to quickly check if they've forgotten or missed any steps in their call flow.
Backside
The back of the document provides a detailed breakdown of each ACT criterion, allowing employees to easily find and reference the descriptions.
Highlights
Watch video above to see the course highlights!
Challenges and Outcomes
Designing a program that functions both as a training tool and a review resource was challenging. However, through careful design decisions, including learner-selective user flows and job aids, the instructional team successfully achieved the desired outcomes.
Even though I'm well versed with Articulate 360, I occasionally encounter bottlenecks when trying to achieve a specific effect. A seemingly simple diagonal interaction proved particularly frustrating, as aligning the hotspots with the cursor on a diagonal path was challenging—they aren’t designed for that use. However, after much trial and error, and with guidance from the team, I was finally able to achieve the desired effect.
I went through several design iterations for the job aid. However, during the wireframing stage, I realized that we might not need to include definitions of the ACT criteria, as not every learner requires that information—some might benefit more from a visual reminder of the call flow. With this in mind, I created a categorical front page listing each step in the call flow process and moved the descriptions to the subsequent pages of the pamphlet. This design also serves as a helpful study guide for new employees.
At times, I faced constraints due to the Subject Matter Expert's limited availability. To address this, I compiled a list of potential problem areas and their solutions in advance. To enhance efficiency, I supplied the SME with a targeted set of information and resources essential for the design, minimizing the risk of being overwhelmed by irrelevant materials that could consume time and energy. This allowed us to make our meetings more meaningful and avoid delays and interruptions in communication that could disrupt workflow and hinder meeting deadlines."
Permission for content used in this portfolio approved and provided by Jud Stoddard, Manager, Instructional Designer at Vivint© L&D